Crimson Sea
by Haxong
Summary: "I have... really become a monster, haven't I?" "Yes", his sire agreed, "but you're also a twelve years old boy, who just took down a chunin single-handed." Sasuke clenched his bloody hands to fists and looked up with a determined glint in his red eyes. "If I'm going to be a monster... I'll be the the strongest monster there is!" Vampire!Sasuke No sparkles!


**Crimson Sea**

**Summary:** Set during Team 7's first C-rank mission to the land of waves. Instead of Zabuza another Nukenin has the mission to kill Tazuna and he just so happens to be a vampire. Being bitten by him during the fight Sasuke has to decide: Does he want to die a human or live as a monster?

...well, that's a dumb question to ask an avenger.

**Note:** Since there are so many versions of vampires out there, I'll take a second to explain: Vampires don't sparkle. They do burn in the sun but can get resistant with time. They need human blood. Everything else will be explained later on. Basically, my vampires are a mix of the ones that can be found in Hellsing, Vampires Masquerade: Bloodlines and Anne Rice' books but I don't take any characters out of them so it's not a crossover.

* * *

**Chapter One**

Kakashi Hatake smiled down at his student who lay on the ground, completely exhausted.

"Ne, Naruto-kun. It's time to wake up", he said, kicking him lightly.

The genin gave a noncommittal sound and simply rolled over. "Just a few more moments..."  
"Have you been training this whole day? You must be hungry. Get back into the house."

At the mention of food Naruto finally managed to get his ass up and followed his sensei. He had to slow down a lot though. His sensei might be able to walk up a tree without problem but in terms of speed his crutches didn't help him any.

"Where's Sakura-chan?", the chaos ninja wanted to know.

"Do you still need help?", Kakashi teased him.

Naruto pouted. "It's not fair! Why did she get it this fast?"

Sakura had completed the exercise of climbing the tree on her first try.

"She's been protecting Tazuna-san, as is our mission."  
"Then, what about Sasuke-teme?" Narutos voice grew quiet. "Did he wake up yet?"  
Kakashi sighed deeply. "Yes, Naruto. He woke up."  
"Hah! He's gonna be so jealous that he missed the training. I'm going to surpass him in no time! Will he be able to train with me tomorrow? I'll wipe the floor with him!"

Kakashi was silent for a long time.

"Hey, sensei, what is it? Why don't you answer?"

"Naruto... I'm not sure if Sasuke-kun will ever train with you again."  
"What? What do you mean?"

The shinobi looked at his student sadly. "That ninja we fought against... Homra Akane... He was an A-rank nukenin. He was just as strong as me, if not stronger. I don't know why he left so suddenly but it was not because I defeated him. He is an extremely dangerous opponent. Sasuke-kun was heavily injured. I didn't think it was anything lethal at first but... With that fever he developed and the other symptoms, I think he might have been poisoned."

"But... he's going to be alright again, isn't he? Isn't he?"  
"I don't know, Naruto. I hope so."

Naruto didn't understand what was wrong. Shortly after the fight Sasuke had seemed fine. Well, not fine per se. That one kick that had sent him against that tree might have broken a few rips and one of Homras water clones had nailed him to the ground by putting a kunai straight through his foot once. But he had still seemed fine, smiling grimly after Naruto and he succeeded in freeing Kakashi from the water prison together. Maybe those weapons of his had been poisoned like the ones the chunins they met earlier had been? There was also one point after Kakashi had landed a heavy hit on the enemy that had made his sword arm useless that the ninja had come rushing towards the genin, attacking so fast none of them could follow his movement. He had practically jumped Sasuke and, not able to use his arms, had sunken his bare teeth in his throat. Naruto had been able to pull him away using two dozen shadow clones. Homra had hit an artery but Sakura had been able to stop the bleeding soon enough. Still for almost five minutes Sasuke didn't stop screaming before finally falling unconscious.

Naruto couldn't understand what was happening. As long as he could remember he had always had that healing factor. During to the treatment the villagers gave him during his early years he was used to pain. Sasuke had almost gotten his throat ripped out and sure, that must have hurt a lot but he hadn't complained at all when his rips had been broken.

"Did he... Did he say anything?", Naruto asked after some time.

Again Kakashi took his time to answer.

"Yes", he replied finally. "He said... He said he was on fire."

Even Naruto had to admit that didn't sound good.

Kakashi and Naruto arrived at Tazunas house shortly after. As soon as the bridge builder was inside Sakura had rushed back to Sasuke, who had remained in the care of Tazunas daughter. She changed the wet cloth on his forehead frequently but it seemed to do nothing to relieve his pain or his fever.

There wasn't much to do for the rest of the day. They ate quietly. Sakura begged Sasuke to at least take some soup but whenever he tried he felt like throwing it up again a moment later. Still he was thirsty and he at least drank the water she brought for him.

Naruto couldn't stand being near him. He saw Sasuke as his rival: He was supposed to be strong. He was supposed to be the one he had to surpass on his road to the Hokage title. He wasn't supposed to be sick and in danger of never being a ninja. It was just wrong.

In the evening, after the sun hat set, the team was sitting in the living room around Sasukes sick bed and discussed various strategies on what to do should they encounter Homra again. Of course the Uchiha heir could do little to help them. Half of the time he didn't realize what was going on around him. He was marginally better now but it still hurt him to talk. His skin was pale as ash and his heart was fluttering weakly whenever his sensei dared to listen to it.

Suddenly there was a commotion outside. Kakashi gestured for Sakura to get up and she went to look what was going on. A few moments later Tazunas daughter fled through their room into the kitchen, a scared look on her face.

"He's here", was all she said.

Immediately Naruto got in a fighting stance and Kakashi got to his feet too. Sakura stumbled back into the room, shortly followed by a tall man.

The man had short, sandy-brown hair, mostly hidden under a dark green hood. He had pale skin and on each cheek there were three red stripes of what seemed to be war paint standing in a sharp contrast to it. His armour was that of most ANBU in dark turquoise. Two twin katanas were strapped on his back and around his left forearm he wore a ninjas headband. The sign on it were four circles, the emblem of the village hidden in the snow as Kakashi had explained, Yukigakure. As was common for nukenins it was crossed out.

Whatever he had said or done to the girl, apparently it had scared the wits out of her because Sakura fled to stand next to her sensei, behind Naruto.

"Attacking head-on, are we?", Kakashi said, trying not to let his panic show. "How unbecoming of a ninja."

"I promise you that I wish you no harm", the tall man offered. "I simply came to talk."  
"To talk?", Kakashi repeated with a scoff. "Why should I believe you? You're the enemy!"

He tried not to show it but he was shocked. The wounds he had inflicted on the other ninja should have taken him out for a week at the very least. The use of the Sharingan had left the copy ninja exhausted. He wasn't ready for another fight and he had counted on his opponent needing time to recover too.

"It's about that student of yours", the ninja said. His gaze travelled past Kakashi, meeting Sasukes form on the ground. The fever let him shiver and he seemed to be delirious.

"Whenever you like what I have to say or not, I will leave this place without anyone coming to harm. You just have to let me speak to him for a moment."

Homra waited for an answer but Kakashi didn't have one. Talk with Sasuke? A few days prior he had tried to rip his throat out and now he wanted to talk!?  
In the end he just pushed the Kakashi aside and restrained as he was with his crutches there was nothing the jounin could do against it.

The enemy knelt next to Sasuke, who struggled to keep his eyes open.

"What is your name, child?"

"Uchi... Uchiha S-Sasuke...", he managed to get out. Fire was burning in his veins. It was hard to breathe.

"You have been poisoned, Uchiha Sasuke. Or rather... you have been cursed."  
"What?! What are you saying there?!", Naruto exclaimed angrily. "What have you done to him!?"  
Homra ignored him. His gaze was fixed on the Uchiha.

"When I attacked you I fully intended to kill you. During to the interference of your teammates, instead I passed down my curse onto you. That pain you're feeling right now, it will diminish with time. The curse will make you stronger. It will give you a longer life. But it will also turn you into a monster." He looked straight at the angry but helpless Naruto and the scared Sakura. "You will turn into a killer machine. You will think of nothing but the blood of your enemies – only you won't be able to tell who your enemy is any longer. You will attack your own teammates and you will murder them. You will go into the town and attack anyone on the streets, men, women and children."  
"No way...", Naruto said in shock. "Sasuke would never do something like that!"

"He won't have any choice. The curse will make him do it."

Sasuke himself was unable to say anything.

"Why have you really come here?", Kakashi asked finally. "You know how to undo the curse, don't you?"

"There is no cure", Homra said, shaking his head. "There is no way to remove it. However, one can control that power to some extent. Sasuke... I am offering you a choice. You can either die here, as a human... or you can come with me and continue to exist as a monster. Since I was the one to curse you, you are now my responsibility. If you chose to come with me, I expect absolute obedience. I will teach you how to control your curse and the power it gives you. I expect you to fight when I tell you to, to run and to kill when I tell you to, regardless of the opponent. I expect you to obey when I tell you to kill the ones you love and to save the ones you hate. I am not likely to ask that of you as long as you obey me in everything else but I do want you to know what could happen. You will not be able to go against a direct order of me – your curse will prevent it."

"Sasuke... Sasuke-kun would never do that!", Sakura insisted now too. "He has his own will!"

"If you refuse", Homra continued, still speaking to the young Uchiha, "I give you one good advice: Ask your teammates to put you out of your misery. Let them kill you. I said I would leave this place without harming anyone and that I will do. After three days I will come back to look for you. If your friends haven't killed you by then, then you will have turned into a monster. You will have killed at least one of them and I will put you down myself to prevent you from losing yourself completely." He leaned closer, whispering into his ear. "It is your choice, Uchiha Sasuke. What do you want to do?"

"I... I want to..."

Everyone in the room was looking at him now, waiting for his answer.

"I want to... to kill someone... I want to... avenge my clan."

"Hm", Homra made and nodded. "Who do you want to kill?"  
"Uchiha... Itachi." His voice was weak but there was a determined glint in his eyes. "I can't die... until I've killed him!"

"Very well", the man said. He recognized the words as what they were – they were Sasukes conditions.

"Sasuke! You can't mean that? There's no way to tell if this man is speaking the truth!", Kakashi tried to steer him but Sasuke ignored him.

"Is there anything else?", Homra asked.

"My team... You won't... you won't kill them. You'll abandon your mission here."

"Heh? What do you care about the mission? The people of this land are worthless. Would you give your life for a simple C-rank mission?"  
Sasuke smirked. The effect was diminished by the sweat on his forehead and his obviously pained expression but it was a smirk nonetheless. "How would I know... that you're not bluffing if you're not willing to give up something as small as the mission?"

"Fine then. I'll agree."  
"No! Sasuke, you can't leave us!"

"Sakura..."  
"What will we do without you? What will I do? You can't leave!"

"Sakura!"

The girl flinched back upon hearing the sharp voice of her sensei.

"Let him go."  
"But-"  
"His fever is only getting worse. We don't have the means to treat it here and during to his injuries he won't survive a transport back to the village."

"But the idiot is defecting to the enemy! That's not okay", Naruto protested.

"No, he's not defecting", Kakashi stated. "He's sacrificing himself. We are in no state to fight Homra Akane. He would kill us all. When Sasuke-kun goes, we live and can complete the mission. Also, this guy might be the only one who knows how to make him better. Him going with the enemy is the only way to save all of us. Don't you dare call him a traitor."

Faced with those words Naruto and Sakura bowed their heads, looking down in shame and sadness.

"Sasuke-kun", Kakashi said, addressing his student. "I expect you to come and report back as soon as you're better."

"I wouldn't count on that happening during your generation, copy ninja", Homra said with a grin. He put a hand under Sasukes head and another on his back, lifting him up as if he weighted nothing at all.

"Keh! Don't you dare to underestimate Sasuke-teme! He'll be back with us in no time!", Naruto declared.

"Idiot", Sasuke muttered.

Homra turned to leave and over his shoulder Sasuke took one last glance at his sensei.

"Thank you", he said, almost too quiet to be heard.

Then his new teacher leaped into the air and he was soon gone from view.


End file.
